BENGHAZI:MOHAMMED AHMED groggily stretched his spindly limbs and looked around his hospital bed through half-closed eyes. The five-year-old's body is criss-crossed with tubes. A heavy bandage on his narrow chest marks the spot where he was shot at the weekend.
Mohammed, his mother Asma, and father Ahmed as-Sharif were shot by rampaging Gadafy loyalists as the family tried to flee fighting in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. They had hoped to move further east after the city came under heavy shelling from Gadafy’s forces hours after the regime announced a ceasefire that convinced no one here. The young family came under a hail of bullets just outside their home. Ahmed died hours after arriving in hospital. Asma, who was shot in the head, lies unconscious in a Benghazi intensive care unit. Doctors whisper that she is unlikely to survive. Her son, who is slowly regaining consciousness, is in a bed opposite, oblivious to the tragedy that has befallen his family.
“I feel very sad as a Libyan to see a young child left without a father and mother in this way,” says Dr Adil el-Jamal, an anaesthetist. “Those who do this are not human. I pray to God this is the end of the violence. The international community should finish it for good.”
Last week rebel-held Benghazi, cradle of the uprising that has swept eastern Libya and west towards the capital Tripoli over the past month, was beginning to feel the world had forsaken its desperate pleas for help. But the city breathed a collective sigh of relief just after midnight Thursday after news trickled in that the UN Security Council had authorised a no-fly zone.
After declaring their phoney ceasefire, Gadafy’s forces reached Benghazi’s hinterland on Saturday, prompting thousands to flee as they shelled urban areas. The assault was complemented on the ground by those the rebels had long feared – Gadafy loyalists who had hidden out in the city waiting for the right moment to attack.
They roamed Benghazi’s neighbourhoods, attacking with grenades and gunfire. Some regime thugs commandeered an ambulance and drove along streets, firing at anything that moved, according to one doctor.
“There were far more of these embedded regime cells than we expected,” says Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the opposition. “We were also very surprised by the amount of weaponry and ammunition they had.”
Mustafa Abdul Sabri, a 30-year-old supervisor, came under sniper fire which killed three of his companions on Saturday night. “They were shooting all around,” he says.
“This is the main danger in Benghazi now that Gadafy’s forces have retreated and the no-fly zone has been imposed,” says Salah, an administrator. “The no-fly zone has made us safe from the skies but we still face these people who dress in civilian clothes and sometimes carry the opposition flag as a disguise. They are willing to kill for the regime.”
Sanad, a volunteer at one of the main hospitals, believes these regime loyalists will be difficult to root out. One doctor says a list of thousands of such people has been posted near the rebels’ headquarters. “They are everywhere,” says Sanad. “They are of Benghazi but they work for Gadafy. They hide in the city so it will take time to find them.”
In the al-Jala hospital, the morgue was piled with the bodies of some of those killed during the weekend fighting. In one room, the shoulder and face of a rebel fighter had been gouged in a rocket attack. Another man’s arm ended in a raised half-fist set by rigor mortis. Some were burned beyond recognition, their bodies reduced to charred lumps gathered in green bags.
As the bags were unzipped, a group of men inside the morgue grimaced and then shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great). In a separate, locked room were some 15 corpses of Gadafy fighters, heaped on a floor smeared with blood. Curious onlookers peered from outside. One hospital staff member said the men may have been killed in French air strikes on sites around Benghazi, but admitted they could not be sure of this.
Hearing mention of France, one of several men outside the room cried: “Thank you, France, for saving Benghazi. You have saved thousands of our people and we will never forget that.”